Hitachi P50XR01 50in Plasma TV - Hitachi P50XR01
Review

Sections

More good news comes courtesy of the Movie FRC system, as motion across the screen really does appear exceptionally fluid and sharp. What’s more, the processing is even up to handling different speeds of ‘scrolling’, as seen when foreground objects cross the screen more slowly than background ones during extreme-depth camera pans.

Achieving all this with apparently no nasty side effects is an accomplishment that should stand Hitachi in good stead with future flat TVs – provided it can iron out its black level and colour problems, that is!

The P50XR01’s soundstage is generally very good, with effects getting dispersed far and wide, and action scenes benefiting from a surprising amount of bass by flat TV standards. On the downside, dialogue can get a bit crushed during really full-on action scenes, and the thankfully optional SRS Wide mode is excruciatingly awful. But overall the P50XR01 at least delivers a sound performance big enough to match the 50in pictures.

”’Verdict”’

The P50XR01 is a really great idea that has, for the most part, been very well executed. It’s surprisingly affordable, too. However, the fact that it doesn’t quite go the whole Freeview Playback hog and has a couple of disappointingly old-school picture flaws, stops it short of true telly greatness.